Despite the immense technological advancements in the modern era, the retail realm continues to be the biggest marketplace in every corner of the world. What is more interesting is the fact that digital innovations have not yet penetrated the retail market enough to realise the digital transformation in this space. Most of the retailers, irrespective of their geographical locations, continue to operate the traditional way by the means of brick and mortar physical stores.

The consumer side of things has been a bit more advanced and open to adopting change in the way the modern generation chooses to conduct business or shop for products or services. IT companies like Coforge are developing solutions to connect modern customers with retailers by providing them tools to modernise their operations. Ashwani Kumar, VP, Enterprise Architecture at Coforge, possesses domain expertise in the field of Modernisation, Blockchain Technology, AI, Automation, Digital Analytics to bring about digital transformation in the retail market. We shall talk more about what he and his team at Coforge do in this domain later.

Tools To Digitise The Retail Market

There are a plethora of modern tools and solutions to digitise every sector. Many industries like healthcare, fintech, education, insurance, etc have already gone through the phase of modernisation. It is high time the retail market also experiences the benefits and features of going digital. Through specific tools like digital analytics, automation and AI, the retailers could get their hands on the important customer information regarding their purchase preferences, shopping patterns, market trends, customisable offers, products, behaviour, mode of buying (mobile, tablet, laptop), etc.

Gathering data using all these tools empowers the retailers with the necessary information regarding the potential customers to modify their products, strategies, services, adopting technology to get specifics to develop customised offers and services to particular customers. All these tools are bound to realise customer engagement and result in increased revenues.

Omnichannel Approach

Another aspect that a ton of modern retailers miss is the virtual omnipresence (omnichannel). This refers to all the channels and streams with which to catch hold of potential customers while enhancing the experience of the existing ones. Nowadays, a business needs to be present in all forms, media, social platforms, online, e-commerce platforms, digital advertisements, marketing, etc to ensure that the new customers could discover them anywhere and everywhere.

Machine Learning & Predictive Analysis

Machine Learning and Predictive Analysis are prominent tools to transform your business towards auto-pilot and efficient operation. By gathering tons of data regarding various aspects of the business from inventory to sales, machine learning and AI could perform repetitive tasks better than humans while predictive analysis will recognise the patterns that are forming to prevent or rectify any kind of failure at any stage of operation. This will ensure that while the other tools expand the business outside, such tools prepare the internal foundation and operations of the business adequately to build huge businesses on.

Solutions by Coforge

As mentioned before, Coforge has developed various technologies and solutions to digitise the retail space. Under the expertise of Ashwani Kumar, the aim of these solutions is to make the retailers more competitive and competent to benefit from modern technology. Their solutions are specifically designed to support greater customer-centricity, focused on digital transformation, data analytics and security, supply chain management and growth, and new business models. To unlock valuable insights, data must be collected, harmonized, cleansed, and stored in the cloud. Only then can the appropriate AI tools be leveraged to extract actionable insights that will inform your approaches, such as pricing or digital engagement strategies.

Adopting all the aforementioned modern tools and technologies is not an arduous task as many retailers consider it to be. However, the basic intent and need to transform have to be there. They must realise the immense sea of opportunity that lies past this adoption that culminates in business expansion and revenues gains.